Size of Florida outage may spark probe by
federal energy agency

The federal government wants to know why
the failure of a single switch in a substation west of Miami
led to a power outage that rolled across the state Tuesday
afternoon and cut off electricity for more than 2 million
people.

An official at the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that his agency was
considering taking an active role in an examination of the
blackout because a small-scale malfunction usually doesn't
have such far-reaching effects.

"When you have any incident that knocks
off 2.5 million people, it obviously grabs your attention,"
said Joe McClelland, director of the Washington-based
agency's office of electric reliability.

The commission probably will decide by the
end of the week whether it will assign its own investigators
to work with the nonprofit Florida Reliability Coordinating
Council to analyze the power failure, which started at a
Florida Power & Light Co. substation and affected 1.2
million homes and businesses.

Depending on what the agencies find, the
analysis could lead to a formal investigation and fines of
up to $1 million per violation.

FPL said Wednesday that it was continuing
an in-house study of the outage, which apparently was
triggered by a switch failure that caused a fire at the
substation. The malfunction, just after 1 p.m. Tuesday,
knocked five of FPL's power generating units, including two
nuclear reactors, off line and caused the state's electrical
grid to lose 4,000 megawatts of generation, about 7 percent
of its capacity, according to the Florida Reliability
Coordinating Council.

One unit at FPL's Martin County plant in
Indiantown was among those tripped off line. It restarted
Tuesday evening.

To restore power more quickly Tuesday, FPL
made the most extensive use ever of its 20-year-old "on
call" program, which powers down air-conditioning units and
other appliances for customers who are enrolled.

About 765,000 customers get a monthly
credit for participating in the voluntary program. By 8 p.m.
Tuesday all of their appliances had been powered up again.

"In situations such as what we
experienced, it was invaluable to the utility to be able to
restore the power that much more quickly," Marmion said.

Both nuclear reactors at FPL's Turkey
Point facility in Miami-Dade County remained on standby
Wednesday and were not producing power. They were
automatically shut down Tuesday when their sensors detected
a disruption in the grid.

As a matter of policy, FPL does not say
when nuclear reactors resume full power, said April Schilpp,
nuclear power spokeswoman for FPL, which was using the
opportunity to do maintenance on the two units.

The nuclear reactors are two of five in
the state and together produce enough electricity for about
850,000 customers. Marmion said the utility had reserve
capacity to handle customers' needs until the reactors are
back on line, even if Wednesday's cold front led to higher
demand.

No customers experienced residual effects
of the blackout Wednesday, Marmion said, adding that any
power disruptions were likely a result of bad weather.

The Tampa-based Florida Reliability
Coordinating Council, which ensures power reliability in
Florida, is assembling an "event analysis" team of five to
10 experts to evaluate how Tuesday's outage started and
whether the system operated correctly in its aftermath, said
Sarah Rogers, the council's president and chief executive
officer.

Rogers said she hoped the team would start
work later this week. "It probably will take several
months," she said of the analysis.

If the council determines that reliability
standards were violated, it has the ability to recommend a
fine of up to $1 million per violation for FPL. The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission has the final say on the fine.

The maximum amount "would be for the most
egregious of violations," the commission's McClelland said,
such as obstruction of an investigation. In less severe
cases, non-monetary penalties may be recommended.

In all, there are about 90 federal
reliability rules that cover everything from cyber-security
standards to communication and coordination during times of
emergency, McClelland said. Some, such as vegetation
maintenance and cyber-security, probably can be ruled out in
this case, he said.

The commission usually takes an appellate
role in such cases — meaning it can reject the Florida
Reliability Coordinating Council's recommendation if it
doesn't agree with it — but it's considering launching a
concurrent analysis because of the scope of Tuesday's
outage, McClelland said.

On the surface, Rogers said, it appeared
the restoration of power went as it should have Tuesday.

"If you think about similar incidents
elsewhere in the country, they lasted days, not hours, and
the utilities clearly coordinated amongst themselves to
ensure this was not any worse than it was," Rogers said.